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Cruz-Samayoa v. Holder, No. 09-3824, concerned Guatemalan natives’ petition for review of a decision denying their applications for asylum and related relief. As stated in the decision: “[T]he Guatemalan government has filed charges against Cruz for his participatopn and leadership in the events that took place at Nueva Linda, and it is for this reason that Cruz entered the United States most recently,” and “Based on the INTERPOL report, the laws that Guatemala seeks to enforce against Cruz are laws of general applicability and their underlying substance is not questionable....

Yesterday, the Supreme Court put the kibosh on a class action lawsuit by DirectTV customers. California courts, it ruled, must enforce a DirectTV arbitration agreement that prevented class-wide claims. It’s the last opinion from the Court in 2015, and one of a number of recent cases emphasizing that state courts must give effect to arbitration agreements. But that’s wasn’t the only news out of the High Court on Monday. In its first major action on the rights of gays and lesbians since last summer’s Obergefell decision, the Supreme Court stepped in to a dispute between two lesbian parents, staying an Alabama order that would have denied one mother parental rights to her adopted children....

The best time to get protection against a flood is before it happens. That means if you keep anything in a basement or live on the ground floor, it’s important to have flood insurance. However, many properties that should have flood insurance do not. A flood insurance policy is separate from a standard homeowners insurance policy or renters insurance policy and can cover your home and personal belongings in the event of a flood....

Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc. v. St. Paul, No. 09-2670, involved a First Amendment action against the City of St. Paul, Minnesota, after the St. Paul City Council enacted an ordinance prohibiting all billboard extensions. The court affirmed summary judgment for plaintiff on the ground that a refusal to remand in this situation simply retained the status quo and allowed the City to begin its legislative process anew. In US v. Washington, No....

District court’s dismissal of plaintiff’s putative class action against State Farm under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA) is affirmed as plaintiff failed to state a claim for his false pretenses and permissible purpose claims because State Farm’s mailer constituted an offer of insurance under the FCRA, and that was a permissible purpose for disclosing plaintiff’s credit report. Read Gelman v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., No. 07-3665 On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania...

Every spring, hundreds of teenage, aspiring-lawyer types flock to the National High School Mock Trial Competition. Typically coached by a licensed attorney, these kids learn how to apply the Federal Rules of Evidence to a fact pattern, and eventually try a case before panels of judges. Most of them are pretty good. At the end of each round, the judges exclaim, “Outstanding! You were better than some of the real attorneys who appear in my courtroom!...

A Los Angeles ordinance, which requires hotels to keep, and make available for inspection at any time, detailed records of guests’ names, addresses, number of party members, make, model, and license plate number of guests’ vehicles, date and time of arrival, time of scheduled departure, cholesterol level, room number, rate charged, payment method, amount collected, and more (extra information is required for those who pay cash, don’t make reservations, or rent for less than 12 hours), has been struck down by an en banc Ninth Circuit....

In a Bivens action claiming that Defendant Secret Service agents violated plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights when they ordered the relocation of a demonstration, denial of defendants’ motion to dismiss based on qualified immunity is reversed where the bald allegation of impermissible motive on the agents’ part, standing alone, was conclusory and was therefore not entitled to an assumption of truth. Read Moss v. US Secret Serv., No. 07-36018 Appellate Information...

Motorola has been involved in antitrust litigation for the past five years with AU Optronics, and other defendants, who are part of an alleged foreign price fixing cartel. In one fell swoop, Judge Posner eliminated 99% of Motorola’s claim – what will happen next remains to be seen. The Sherman Act Claims Motorola claims that it purchased over $5 billion worth of LCD panels to incorporate them into cell phone manufactured either by Motorola, or its subsidiaries....

In a petition for review of the BIA’s order removing petitioner from the U.S., the petition is denied where: 1) in determining that petitioner was removable pursuant to 8 U.S.C. section 1182(a)(6)(C)(i) for willfully misrepresenting a material fact, the BIA was not required to find that petitioner had an intent to deceive; and 2) the BIA’s determination that petitioner assisted in the persecution of others was supported by substantial evidence....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action by a prisoner alleging that he was placed in racially discriminatory lockdowns, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed in part where the lockdown did not violate due process because it did not impose extraordinary hardship on plaintiff. However, the order is reversed in part where defendants offered no evidence to disprove plaintiff’s claim of racial discrimination. Read Richardson v. Runnels, No. 07-16736 Appellate Information...

As states begin to lift COVID-19 lockdowns, many businesses face uncertainties as they open their doors again. How many of their customers will come back? How many of their employees will come back? Besides those concerns, they may also be asking themselves about new legal risks that might arise as they resume business. What kind of potential lawsuits could they face from customers and workers who believe they were infected on the business premises after operations resumed?...

Now, this is a unique way to request en banc review. The Coalition to Protect Marriage, a conservative group opposing same-sex (or genderless) marriage, which stood in for Nevada to defend that state’s ban when the state refused to do so, really wants an en banc shot. And on the surface, that seems like a long-shot: CPM isn’t even really a party to the case, the panel opinion (lengthy concurrences aside) followed directly from recent precedent, and the Ninth Circuit has denied en banc review in those precedential cases....

If you are still bragging about the internet-licensed Elvis impersonator who shook up your nuptials, then you obviously have never served in Congress. Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, will marry New Jersey school teacher Amy Petitgout on Friday, July 15. Patrick Kennedy, the most winning politician in the Kennedy family, left his Rhode Island seat last year at the end of his eighth term to pursue “a fuller life;” he announced his engagement in March....

In the Ruth Bader Ginsburg era, sometimes it’s easy to forget what Sandra Day O’Connor went through to become the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. O’Connor was appointed in 1981, ending 191 years of Supreme Court history without a woman on the bench. She retired in 2006, but she and her legacy live on. While her legal career has largely been written, occasionally that history rewrites itself. Like last week, when Twitter revealed that she was admitted to federal practice as “Mrs....

United Student Aid Funds, Inc. v. Espinosa, No. 08-1134, involved an appeal from a bankruptcy court order in a Chapter 13 proceeding, enforcing the confirmation of a student loan debtor’s plan and directing creditors to cease any collection efforts. The Supreme Court affirmed the Ninth Circuit’s judgment reversing the district court’s order in favor of student loan creditor, holding that 1) creditor’s actual notice of the filing and contents of the debtor’s plan more than satisfied its due process rights, and thus debtor’s failure to make the required service did not entitle creditor to relief under Fed....

The domestic economy has ground to a halt over the last several months as the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened, keeping many working from home or home without work. Several million people have applied for unemployment. Suspended rent payment bills in various localities have bought some people time, but now that the CARES Act’s national eviction moratorium has passed its July 25 end date without renewal, up to 23 million Americans could be facing eviction in the coming months....

For being “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” a name he invented for himself, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, gets shot down. A lot. He has the added disadvantage of Arizona’s statutes, which try to butt into space occupied by federal law every chance they can get. Once again, a federal court will teach Arizona a lesson in pre-emption. The federal Immigration Reform and Control Act of 2012 made it harder to hire undocumented immigrants....

Earlier this week, we brought you some insights from “Campus Colors,” a panel presented at this year’s ABA Annual Meeting on Fisher v. University of Texas. The panel, consisting of Patricia Olendorf, Vice President of Legal Affairs for the University of Texas at Austin; Damon Hewitt of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; and long-time civil rights lawyer Bill Lann Lee of Lewis Feinberg, provided a unique mix of experience and insider observations on the case....

The Sixth Circuit just affirmed a second dismissal on forum non conveniens grounds in just as many weeks. In this case with international implications, the Sixth Circuit found that American citizen Brandon Hefferan should have brought suit in Germany instead of the United States, following his nightmarish experience with a surgical stapler that malfunctioned. Hefferan is an American citizen who was living in Deutschland with his German wife in 2002, when he underwent surgery....